Three deliverances.
In the past, Israel had had one great and unparalleled deliverance, that, namely—
I. FROM THE POWER OF EGYPT. With a "mighty hand and a stretched-out arm" God had saved them from the miserable fate of being bondservants, bound to task-work, and compelled to labour under the lash. He had effected their deliverance by a series of miracles, culminating in the death of the firstborn, and the passage of the Red Sea, whereby it might have been hoped that the nation would have been so impressed as to turn heartily to God, and become "a praise upon earth." But the result had not followed. Even in the wilderness they had set up idols (Exodus 32:1-20; Acts 7:43). In the Holy Land they had gone from bad to worse, "walked in the statutes of the heathen; built them high places in all their cities, set them up images and groves, wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger, hardened their hearts, followed vanity and become vain" (2 Kings 17:8-15); "transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen, polluted the house of the Lord, mocked his messengers, and misused his prophets" (2 Chronicles 36:14-16); "shed innocent blood, which the Lord would not pardon" (2 Kings 24:4); and thus rendered their first deliverance of no avail, since it was an outward deliverance only from an earthly oppressor, and not an inward deliverance from the bondage of sin. Now Israel is promised in the future a second and a third deliverance—
II. FROM THE OPPRESSION OF BABYLON. God will once more show forth his power, will chastise Babylon by the sword of Cyrus, will cause Cyrus to "perform all his pleasure" (Isaiah 44:28), will bring his people from the four winds of heaven (Isaiah 43:5, Isaiah 43:6) and plant them again in their own land (Isaiah 51:11). "The ransomed of the Lord will return, and come to Zion." This deliverance is, so far, a sort of duplicate of the deliverance from Egypt, only that it is effected by new means, without miracle, by God's ordinary and secret action on the course of human affairs.
III. FROM THE TYRANNY OF SIN. The second deliverance is to lead on to the third. Israel, redeemed from Babylon, and replanted in its own laud, is to "show forth God's praise" (Isaiah 43:21). The unimpressible people is to be, to a certain extent, impressed. In point of fact, after the return to Palestine idolatry disappeared. The pest-Captivity Jews were faithful to Jehovah. Though not free from certain minor sins (Ezra 9:1; Nehemiah 13:1-25; Malachi 1:7-14; Malachi 2:8-17; Malachi 3:8-15), they were never apostates. In the Maccabaean times large numbers showed a noble contempt for death, and were martyrs and confessors for the truth. When our Lord came, there was still a sound and healthy element in the nation. He was able to gather to himself a "little flock." The "little flock" expanded, and became the nucleus of the Christian Church. This Church, holy by its calling, holy by its profession, holy by the sanctified lives of so many of its members, is but an enlargement of that early "flock." Thus the final deliverance—begun here, but not to be completed till the consummation of all things—is a deliverance from sin. The final "Israel of God" will be "a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing" (Ephesians 5:27).